Towards a dynamic teaching profession

 

Educating the Sri Lankan for the New Era, a book with 3 major themes and 30 sub-themes that are rich in moulding the mindset of the teachers transforming them into reflective practitioners, has appeared in print.The beauty of this work by C. Kariyawasam, former Professor and a  Head of the Department of   the Faculty of Education University of Colombo  is that it invites the reader to explore diverse aspects of education ranging from theories of education to the use of education to improve entrepreneurial skills of the learners that are essential for the survival in the new era.

 I would like to revisit a few selected chapters in this book that interest me. They are Teacher’s philosophy for the new era, Creative person, Critical thinker and An aesthete.

“One of the major challenges of education at present is to change the teaching profession from a pre-professional age to professionalism, for the excellence in education mostly depends on the pedagogical quality.” (p.19) says the author inviting teachers to be dynamic and permeable in their profession. Teachers, whose power of inspiring the rest of the world as a change agent is infinite, should be a rolling stone.

Demands of extremely exam oriented education have reduced the role of the teacher to a mere disseminator of facts where the learner’s role is to retain and retrieve facts when necessary and then send them to the recycle bin to be frozen. Teachers who are compelled to perform their duty in this context fail to carve a creative person. The outcome, inevitably, is producing pupils who are ready to ‘conform and comply’ but not to contradict and construct.

“Education has to foster and nurture creativity by infusing it to the curriculum” (p.59) says the author describing the role of the teacher in stimulating creativity in the learner. In subsequent chapters, he suggests a framework based on which teachers can design a creative learning-teaching process. The section on nurturing creativity gives valuable insights for a teacher to design and implement creative teaching strategies.

“Critical thinker” is yet another interesting chapter that highlights the significance of exploiting critical thinking skills of the learner. Critical thinking, according to the author, is necessary ‘to get the kernel out of the chaff in what they (pupils) listen or read see and hear to probe beyond appearances and question the common sense’.(p.62)  Developing critical thinking skills of the learner has been reiterated in National Goals of Education the light house to the national circular . Convention of the rights of the child too admits and declares that all children have an inalienable right to thought and expression. The contribution of school education, however, appears to be less in instilling creative thinking skills of the learner.

“Freidrich Schiller (1759-1805) was of the opinion that aesthetics is the chief instrument for the education of mankind. Thus, education should provide opportunities to develop capacity   for aesthetic appreciation” (p.90) says the author writing the introduction to a chapter ‘An Aesthete’. What the author suggests here is to exploit education to see the beauty of everything around the learner. An interesting implication in this chapter is that learners be guided to see the beauty of all religious and cultural conventions, practices and institutions free from prejudice which is the foundation for social cohesion.

The rest of the chapters of the book too shares innovative ideas for teachers to enrich their vision as futuristic teachers. This book is available in Sarasavi Bookshops for a modest price of Rs 300/=

S.A.Kularathne.